User Review: Jetboil Personal Cooking System (PCS)

This is a review of the PCS and all the accessories. The price ($300) is for all components.

I'm a gear junkie. I love buying new equipment, and even though I didn't need the PCS I ended up buying it anyway. I even bought the frying pan, the part needed to use it (which in itself is ridiculous) and the coffee press while I was at it. I think I spent $30 on the utensils, and $20 on the tripod for the canister to make the whole thing a bit more stable as well.

What a waste of money!! I was not impressed by the boil times, as they were so far from what it said on the box that it bordered on being a joke. The gas consumption was also a lot higher than expected, just a fraction lower than my little Primus Litech burner and kettle, that boiled water almost as fast.

OK, the PCS was a little bit more effective in wind than the Litech, but not a lot. The frying pan worked just like any other thin metal frying pans, the heat is located in the middle were everything gets scorched while the rest of it stays too cool to fry properly, even though there are heat exchangers around the edges.

The spatula melted when trying to flip pancakes, the tripod snapped on the first try and the bottom lid kept on falling off exposing the rather hot heat exchanger on the pot. The coffee press does work though :)

So I'll give the PCS one star for being compact when not in use, and half a star for being usable as a large insulated mug.

Too bad return policies are so different here in Norway, otherwise I would have been the owner of some other equipment at the same price. Now the PCS is nothing more than a waste of space in my gear closet.